“Urip Iku Urup”
Its a Javanese old proverbs means:
“We lived to spread lights of kindness to others”
Me and my husband are entrepreneurs, it has began long before we have our kids. One day, a Local Guides came to buy things from our store and asked for permission to add my store on Google Maps. My husband easily said yes and the Local Guides instantly took pictures of my store. Less than five minutes, our store are listed on Google Maps. My husband asked him about what is LG program and he explained that its a voluntary job for Google Maps like adding places, editing maps, and more. It is not paid but Google sometimes send gifts or discount voucher to the members who gives constant contributions.
My husband turned to me and said,
“You wanna join? I think you’ll like to do stuffs like that, its nothing to lose and could give you some extra discounts”
Me while stroking my pregnant belly (I was in second trimester with my second son) just replied,
“Maybe some other time, we are too busy with the business and our second baby are coming. Knowing that our store got listed on Google Maps, its a good thing for today”
The Local Guides said goodbye and we said thank you to him.
End of story.
Years passed by and having two kids in the family has made me becoming a full time mother juggling with everyday domestic jobs. Just named it: cooking, feeding, bath the kids, cleaning the house, walk my son to school and everything that a mother do.
On September 2019, I remember, it was midnight and my kids were asleep, I was doing my so called “me time” surfing on the internet. I was casually browsing and found some blogs written by Local Guides from Indonesia who had been invited to attend Connect Live in San Francisco, California. I stumbled and instantly remembered that Local Guide who add my store on Google Maps! Maybe he is one of the attendees! But unfortunately I forgot how he looked like.
Moving backwards, I gained much impacts since my store was listed on Google Maps. People came to us based on reviews, they easily find our location and even, this is a real testimony, one day one customer called the local operator asking what is the best sore in Lebak Bulus area, the operator mention our store name and that customer showed up afterwards!
That one act of kindness from a Local Guides has given me a strong determination. Thinking after all that benefits I got, why not to pay it forward? It is payback time for me to help and elevate other local small businesses. The next morning I signed up being a Local Guides and told my husband about it. He was nothing but supportive. I’m blessed.
So, I began doing my research started from my neighborhood. I add small businesses, writing the most honest reviews and uploading photos I’d taken in order to give a comprehensive understanding of a place. I always thought:
“what are the important informations do I expect from a place I’m about to?”
So my basic reviews included some of this below:
- Is this place child friendly?
- Does it provide high chair for babies?
- Does it provide Nursery/Family/Parents Room?
- Does it has clean restrooms?
- Does it has parking space?
- What if I forgot to bring my wallet? Do they accept virtual wallet?
After that I will add my personal reviews about the place, like how the food taste like, the staffs are helpful or not, is the park has kids activity corner, and many more.
The next thing I’d like to do is Edit Places. For me, it is just like organizing my kids toys to the right boxes. Clean the maps just like the way I clean my house. Every right stuffs must go into the right places. I just lose my mind whenever I see a map marker(a place/ATM/offices/restaurants) literally placed on roads! Recently today I learned that the number of my reviews are as much as I edit places, 50:50 in comparison.
You see, here in Indonesia, its very easy to open up a businesses, especially (small scale) culinary, by that I mean hawker. You can cook pretty good, you have the money, then you’re good to go. At first, new entrepreneurs are excited promoting what they are selling. Listed it on Google Maps, spreading the news through social media or maybe paid partnership with an influencer. But, by the time goes by if its not progressing just the way they hope for, they’ll just easily closed it. Leaving their mark on Google Maps abandoned, not giving an extra effort to declare its closed. This has caused our Maps are loaded with false informations and reduce its reliability. Of course we do not want that. I gained my courage by creating a post about this on Idea Exchange section
Early days becoming a mother I struggled coping with a transition from working women to a stayed at home mom. Not to mention the postpartum depressions. That’s another story. Feeling not productive haunted me every single day. I humbly apologize to any mothers who are reading this post, its not the raising kids nor the marriage parts I’m talking about. As a human, we are naturally designed reaching for accomplishments. Having pride in doing certain works and the urged of gaining self esteem and self actualization. Back then, I used to work, earning income and closed hard negotiations, but now I’m not. So, what am I going to do?
Contributing as a Local Guides has been a “self-healing” tools for me. Knowing that I had listed small businesses on Google Maps to be recognized has been a non awarding achievements. I wish I could give good examples to my children. Google Maps is a platform that actually made me a better person both in the way of thinking and reacting. It empowers specifically mothers like me, that’s why I chose Motherhood 4.0 as the title of my application post.
Moreover, I love involved on Connect. I realize that on Connect, people motivated each other, give compliments, encourage others to be a better person and having discussions open-mindedly. It is reflected by the Connect Moderators, I adore how they maintain Local Guide Connect in line with Google Maps purposes: helping people. Words of encouragement are way much better and that’s what we need in our world today.
Act of kindness
Pay it forward
Self-healing
That are what Local Guides program means to me.
Thank you Google, I am proud to be a Local Guides.
See you in Connect Live 2020
Love
Rita
) I hope this pandemic could end soon because I really want to go outside and explore just like I used to do.
, and it’s normal.